Hacker News Reader

Comment by reitanqild | Hacker News Reader

Connor was diagnosed with autism early — when he was just 18 months old. His condition was already obvious by then. “He was lining things up, switching lights on and off, on and off,” says his mother, Melissa. He was bright, but he didn’t speak much until age 3, and he was easily frustrated. Once he started school, he couldn’t sit still in class, called out answers without raising his hand and got visibly upset when he couldn’t master a math concept or a handwriting task quickly enough.

So far it sounds like textbook bright kid with ADHD to me.

Edit: reading further it seems thats what they originally though too. I have yet to see anything in the description of the first kid that suggests autism. Then again I am no specialist.

View on HN

> I have yet to see anything in the description of the first kid that suggests autism.

"He was lining things up, switching lights on and off"

That's Autism right there.

There are other things you can test for, but that right there is a big tell for me. You aren't a specialist, and I can't imagine you are around autistic children much if this doesn't jump right out at you.

Don't all kids like to line things up and play with light switches? Like, I'm pretty sure every child I've had contact with did stuff like this often enough.

Maybe there's a difference that you can see in person, like body language and such, but from the text description there, it sounds like perfectly normal play for a toddler.

Edit to add: I have limited experience with children on the spectrum, but I have 8 younger siblings spanning 25 years that I've watched grow up and helped raise. Unless they are all on the spectrum, I'm a bit at a loss.

My thoughts as well although I wish my kids were a little bit more interested in lining things up.

Mine has so far tended to pile things up and tell me they were "decorating". :-)

Before I start thinking about the autism spectrum I need to see serious communication problems, lack of empathy etc but then again I am no specialist.

It seems a little weak to me too. But I think it's one of those things about degree of behavior. My kids would enjoy flipping lights on and off at that age too, but only for a few minutes, or with breaks every now and then. I've had some limited exposure to kids with autism, and I've seen them happy to do things like this for hours at a time. Since it was specifically called out in the article I'm assuming it trended toward longer periods.

That being said it's a generalization and like (basically) everything having to do with autism, generalizations only apply to a very limited set of the population, and can be difficult to distinguish from stereotypes.

Also, obligatory, #IAmNotADiagnostician

"He was lining things up, switching lights on and off"

That's Autism right there.

I guess that depends on what you read into it?

As someone who exhibited many of Connor's behaviors while growing up and whose mother was suggested more than once by teachers to have me medicated, this whole story gives me a weird and uncomfortable feeling - especially when I saw his parents ultimately took him off medication.

My mother never had me medicated, and when reading writeups like these I'm sometimes astounded she didn't. I was a complete menace in class at times dealing with other students, emotionally immature, obnoxious, and absolutely acing all my classes. In retrospect, I was bored and overenergized, and eventually math started kicking my ass and I leveled out. I like to think I'm a "bright" person to this day. I wonder if in another timeline, I was jerking and ticcing at 9 years old.

That kind of repetitive and obsessive behavior is much more on the Autism spectrum than ADHD. And it's possible to have both ADHD and still be on the spectrum - want to talk about a painful combination of traits to have.

Agree it seems odd. When my daughter was diagnosed, she had been pretty normal till age 3. Was learning lots of words, etc, then suddenly started backtracking, till by age 3 and half she barely spoke and had heavy eye aversion. That's classic autism, normal till somewhere in the 2-3 year old range, then quickly regresses.

But autism is a range of disorders. My daughter was tested on a 13 point scale and scored normally on 6 of them. Lining things up, repetitive behaviors are indicators. No two kids are the same.

Same with our son; over the course of several months, it was almost as if a blanket had been pulled down over him, starting about age 3. It was a pretty heart-rending experience for us.

With massive, painful and often thankless effort over the next 10 years, he has grown sufficiently to be in a normal junior high school, though he has a good bit of assistance.

He still has no friends. I mean that literally. He is quite pleasant but has quite a few 'strange' benaviours.

Autism and ADHD are often both diagnosed in the same person. Becoming very upset over failing to master something is a classic feature of autism as is struggling to understand when/how to speak and listen.

Becoming very upset over failing to master something is a classic feature of autism as is struggling to understand when/how to speak and listen.

Isn't this classic fearures of ADHD as well?

Yeah honestly that sounds like me as a child.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com